Why Elected Republicans Are Out of Touch

March 28, 2017

When told the negatives of repealing The Affordable Care Act nearly 77% of people respond to not repeal. Yet, Republicans are Hell bent on keeping their campaign promise of repealing the law. Therefor we must ask ourselves, why are Republicans elected even though their ideals don't align with their constituents? To answer this very question, we give you the number one reason.

In 2010 Republicans spent billions to win the congressional majorities. Why so much emphasis on 2010 – the consensus data and re-drawing of congressional districts.

Most everyone learned in history class Gerrymandering. Many of us may have forgotten or didn't care in history so here is a quick refresher. The year is 1812 and the Democratic Governer Gerry signs into law a bill redistricting the state as below.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

Looking at the one district it looks salamandery leading to the name gerrymandering.

How does gerrymandering work?

Shown below is a hypothetical state containing 10 districts and equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats.

The districts are drawn so that each elector represents only their party. This accurately represents the beliefs of the states people and sends representatives to the national government that reflect this.

Now applying gerrymandering we come up with a new map.

In the map above we are now sending 7 blue Representatives and three red Representatives to Washington, even though the state is divide 50 percent blue and 50 percent red. This is the power of gerrymandering. Senators at the time of a census can draw districts to favor their re-election, although their core constituents are the minority in the state.

Looking at North Carolina's current congressional districts we see gerrymandering in full effect.

District 4 is a skinny piece of land that encompasses large chunks of liberal area. Having been drawn this way the district is a Democratic strong hold, with the current incumbent having sat in the seat for the last 15 years. This is one of the far right completely red districts on the unfair gerrymandered map above.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

Where is the land that is around the fourth district? Much of this land belongs to Republican held district 2. District 2 encompasses large amounts of rural land which typically leans conservative. Around Raleigh, a more liberal area, the district picks up enough liberal voters to pull them away from what would be a liberal representative, and places them in the minority against the more numerous rural votes.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

To the right of Raleigh, we have congressional district 13, which is also pulling liberal votes from Raleigh and outnumbering them with votes from rural areas.

Image Courtesy of Wikipedia

All across the country districts have been drawn to favor Republicans in elections. Unless democrats come out in massive numbers, there is no hope to win back any of these seats. The republicans will be able to use their sophisticated software in 2020 to go street by street optimizing their voter blocks further gerrymandering the country. We truly are in trouble if the democrats don't stand up and vote in the next two elections.